Category: Life Expectancy

Cancer treatment in the U.S. cost $87.8 billion in 2014, with 1.7 million new cases being diagnosed each year. In a analysis by the American Cancer Society, patients paid $3.8 billion in out of pocket expenses for their care in 2014.

Source: American Cancer Society – 4/2017

One of the major problems in cancer care is the physician centric model the U.S. has today, which can create major delays in treatment and sometimes mismatches the patient with a specific type of cancer with the correct care program.

Driver, a startup with over $100 million in venture backing has developed an application on the Internet to help patients correctly identify the type of cancer they have and match them to clinical trials and treatment programs. The software allows the patient to be proactive about managing the course of treatment without being totally dependent the treatment processes of their healthcare provider. Driver has partnered with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to provide access to the latest information on cancer treatment trials. NCI has also validated the matching process that Driver employs.

“There is an air gap between knowledge and patients that has existed in cancer care since the 1850s,” said Driver co-founder Will Polkinghorn. “We want to close that space, “ in a recent Bloomberg interview.

The Driver app puts the patient in the driver’s seat so they are empowered to take command of their care. As time is of the essence in cancer care, educating patients and giving them access to the information to initiate their care is crucial. While the target is to provide the application and cancer identification workup at low cost, the initial trial starting this month in the U.S. and China will cost patients $3,000.

We have been an advocate of innovative ways to provide health care to patients. Empowering patients to take direct management of their care instead of being dependent on a bureaucracy in a health provider network is an interesting approach. Providing updated information, access to clinical trials with direct identification of the specific cancer the patient has, will possibly ensure greater accuracy and speed in the treatment process, thus saving more lives and reducing costs. Innovative solutions that disrupt the present status quo of extremely expensive health insurance, provider, drug manufacturers and federal government complex need to shift if we are to see a lower cost, higher quality healthcare system. In particular, our Heartland healthcare providers are falling behind in providing standard health care to our people. We need to turn this spiraling down in care with soaring prices, now.

An insightful analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization shows how far we are behind in Heartland medical care. A comparison of life expectancies in many of our Heartland states are as poor as many war torn or developing countries in pairings like, Mississippi – Libya, Tennessee – Gaza Strip, in a similar range as Libya and Gaza fall Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama.

Many of these states in the South and Midwest have the highest rates of cancer, diabetes, and opioid use in the U.S. As globalization took many factory jobs away from the Heartland, medical service providers, doctors and other health professionals left for cities or the coasts where they had transferable skills and could make a better income. Plus, the number of rural hospital closures has been accelerating in the past 8 years with 120 going out of business since 2005. Researchers at the University of North Carolina who led the study believe the trend in more closings will continue to accelerate as costs go up, people move out and businesses are financially challenged. Good health is often found where there are good incomes and healthy businesses.

We noted in our blog of March 25th that:

“Personal Income growth rates in heartland regions continue to lag the coasts by 3.8 to 2.0 % comparing income growth from 2016 to 2017. The following chart from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis shows how large the gap is:”

“Core issues for the lack of growth are young people moving out, industrial companies leaving for non-union states or moving factories overseas, automation, poor health, slow Internet speeds and fewer education opportunities. Added to these issues which have trended in these ways over the past 20 years are now tariffs on imports with soybean farmers threatened in the Midwest with a possible loss of $624 million where they already are competing with lower price soybean products from Brazil.”

As the Trump Trade War heats up prices of many Heartland agriculture crops have been falling such as soybeans by 2.20 % and corn by .62 % today alone. As prices and foreign customers find other suppliers Midwest and South farmers will find their customers have moved onto other countries hurting sales.

The situation is in a downward spiral, as federal tariff and trade policies don’t help in turning around the economic, health and educational opportunities for these mostly rural regions.

Next Steps:

Our heartland neighbors continue to feel under siege from many different directions. We discuss these issues in our blog – The Hallowing Out of America’s Heartland. We recommend that a major set of investments be made with the federal government providing seed funding for a partnership between non-government organizations, health services providers, universities, corporations and state and local government. To bring focus to the development process we propose that Heartland Development Centers (HDCs) be located in key regions maybe near a major university – land grant universities are good candidates located in rural communities. Experts from across the country in HDCs would join together with local leaders in customizing solutions to build entrepreneurship centers, high quality health services, high speed Internet services, job and career training and other services necessary to renew the economic vitality of these regions.